Catching a bus to a market miles away from home and then hauling armfuls of groceries back may not be the ideal shopping scenario. But it’s a reality many residents in downtown Shreveport and other “food desert” communities live every day.

Michael Billings, a resident of downtown Shreveport, realized he lives in a food desert — an urban neighborhood lacking affordable, fresh and quality food. Many of his neighbors are older, physically unable to travel or have limited modes of transportation, he said.

He plans to lighten the load for his neighbors by bringing fresh produce to their doorstep within minutes through his business, Cotton St. Farms.

Billings is flipping a vacant building in downtown Shreveport — once used as a mechanic’s shop and computer server office — to open an indoor hydroponic farm.

Cotton St. Farms will take urban farming to the next level by using a soil-less gardening technique to grow the leafy greens and herbs in an environmentally friendly, controlled environment.

Billings talked to The Shreveport Times to explain hydroponics and how it will help downtown residents and other local communities acquire fresh, quality produce.

Why found Cotton St. Farms?

Billings is a member of the family that owns and operates DixieMaze Farms in rural north Caddo Parish. He and his father discussed alternative farming methods, prompted in part by the lack of fresh produce in his downtown Shreveport neighborhood.

That led to hydroponic farming. Through hydroponics, he would bring the farm to the “food desert.”

Cotton St. Farms will partner with local farms, beekeepers and others to sell and deliver fresh vegetables, fruit, meat and more.

“We’ll be growing leafy greens and herbs, some vegetables, and we work with local farmers to provide produce for delivery or pickup downtown,” Billings said.

Cotton St. Farms' first day of operation has not yet been announced. Consumers may stay up to date on the farm's progress at cottonstfarms.com.

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Cotton St. Farms will grow herbs and vegetables, as well as partner with local farms, beekeepers and other businesses to supply fresh produce and more.(Photo: Tiana Kennell/The Times)

What is hydroponic farming?

The U.S. Agriculture Department defines hydroponics as “growing plants in a nutrient solution root medium.” No soil is used.

“You’ve seen them in five-gallon buckets with rocks," Billings said. "Our (way) is vertical and has a foam material in it."

In his method, Billings will suspend plant roots in a medium that allows both air and nutrient-rich water to circulate.

"They’re never drowned, but they constantly have just the right amount of oxygen, water, nutrients and that allows us to grow it soil-less.”

Is hydroponic farming new?

Billings researched how other urban communities are using hydroponics to improve access to food sources. In Detroit, he found some urban farmers use vacant manufacturing warehouses for hydroponic farming.

“We are not inventing, in any means, hydroponic farming,” Billings said. “They’re popping up all over the nation."

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Seedlings will be used to begin the soil-less farming process at Cotton St. Farms.(Photo: Tiana Kennell/The Times)

How does growth begin?

Planting and growing begins with seedlings placed into starter cubes that are then put into trays like muffin tins — without soil. Water is pulled into the cubes. When the plants are tall enough, they are placed in hydroponic channels between two long, metal trays that then are locked onto a vertical tower. Under grow-lights, the seedlings grow horizontally. Then the plants are harvested.

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Cotton St. Farms will grow vegetables and herbs from vertical towers in its indoor hydroponics farm in downtown Shreveport.(Photo: Tiana Kennell/The Times)

"If you imagine library stacks, (the towers) will be eight feet tall and six to eight feet long," Billings said. "We’re going to build our own equipment. They’ll be double-sided and the lights will be suspended on a rail system with two of them traveling back and forth."

Is it environmentally friendly?

The grow lamps use LED lights and the farm will be highly water efficient, Billings said. The only water loss is in evaporation and plant consumption.

"Our carbon footprint is super low," he said. "It’s artificial sun, but the same spectrum. We’re allowing the vegetables to get everything they need to grow super-fast but develop on their own."

Successful growth will come by controlling and monitoring all elements of the growth process.

"It’s a closed system. Every seven to 10 days we flush the system so we don’t have fungus built into it, but it’s clean, pure water," Billings said. "We have sensors that will detect the nutrient level and electrical levels of the water — if water becomes too murky or too filled with nutrients. We create the perfect growing environment."

What won’t be grown?

“A lot of the traditional produce isn’t really cost-efficient to grow indoors because you have such a big plant and then you have one ear of corn. One square foot is one ear of corn, and I can’t sell two ears of corn for very much," Billings said.

"Depending on how it’s set up and the efficiency of the vegetable, it kind of limits you. You can grow almost anything hydroponically, but you don’t really want to on a commercial level.”

Does hydroponic produce taste the same as traditionally grown produce?

“It’s absolutely delicious — big, full-bodied plants. They’ve grown with the exact amount of nutrients, the exact amount of water, the perfect light spectrum," Billings said. "It's a reason why plants grow in certain times of the year — because they require certain spectrums of light. We put all that and make a perfect growing environment."

Hydroponics is a natural way of farming without the fungicides, herbicides and pesticides, Billings said, which creates "a very clean environment."

"Grocery stores pick the tomato green because it has to live for a week before it gets to the grocery store," he said. "And before it goes to the grocery store it’s bombarded with chemicals to ripen it. Then they put it on the shelf."

"It takes time to build the minerals and vitamins inside vegetables and leafy greens. If you shorten that process, you don’t get all of it and that’s where the taste is."

How fresh are your ingredients compared to a big grocery store's?

Products are picked within 24 hours so they’re fresh for customers, Billings said.

"You go to the grocery store and that little container of herbs is $4. Those herbs have been sitting there a couple of weeks," Billing said. "Imagine getting herbs that were cut an hour before you got it. If you want to cook with rosemary, oregano, basil — it was living minutes before you put it in your spaghetti sauce. You’ll taste the difference.”

How will cost compare to grocery stores?

Products will be available for purchase at the downtown store or available for delivery through On The Go Delivery and Waitr.

The prices will be comparable to those at Whole Foods Market, Billings said, but slightly higher than those at Walmart.

How sustainable is hydroponic farming?

"If I’m able to sell everything we grow, it comes out to about $1 million in sales a year out of this location — not $1 million in profit," Billings said.

The idea behind urban farming is not needing 100 acres or more to produce fresh fruits and vegetables, he said. The hydroponics farm will have a smaller production rate, so Billings plans to work in tandem with other local farms.

"We will never replace traditional farmers," he said.

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Michael Billings is the CEO of Cotton St. Farms, a hydroponics grow house to begin operation in downtown Shreveport.(Photo: Tiana Kennell/The Times)